Gian Maria Volonté
Birthday: Born in 1933-04-09 in Milano, Lombardia, Italy
Deathday: 1994-12-06
Gian Maria Volonté (9 April 1933 – 6 December 1994) was an Italian actor. He is perhaps most famous outside of Italy for his roles as the main villain in Sergio Leone's A Fistful of Dollars (credited in the USA as "Johnny Wels") and For a Few Dollars More. In Italy and much of Europe, he was notable for his roles in high-profile social dramas depicting the political and social stirrings of Italian and European society in the 1960s and 1970s, including four films directed by Elio Petri - We Still Kill the Old Way (1967), Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion (1971), The Working Class Goes to Heaven (1971) and Todo modo (1976). He is also recognized for his performances in Jean-Pierre Melville's Le Cercle Rouge (1970) and Giuliano Montaldo's Sacco & Vanzetti (1971). Description above from the Wikipedia article Gian Maria Volonté, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
TV Credits
La certosa di Parma
Character: Count Mosca
Stendhal's epic tale of a young French officer in the Napoleonic wars, and his aunt - a duchess of legendary beauty and resourcefulness....
Vita di Michelangelo
Character: Michelangelo
A mini series about the great artist's life....
Spécial cinéma
Character: Self
Marcello Mastroianni, Isabelle Adjani, Alain Delon, Martin Scorsese, Woody Allen... the biggest stars in cinema were welcomed by Christian Defaye on his show Spécial cinéma. Between intimate confessions from actors and immersion in the world of the greatest filmmakers, Christian Defaye took viewers on a journey into the fascinating world of cinema for nearly thirty years....
La Storia Vera Della Signora Dalle Camelie
Character: Plessis
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L'idiota
Character: Parfen Rogozin
Italian televison adaptation of Fyodor Dostoevsky's novel of the same name. Although it is to all intents and purposes a television miniseries, the rhythm of the acting is typically theatrical: the long dialogues, the acting style and the actorly interpretation make it a true example of episodic television theatre....
Le inchieste del commissario Maigret
Character: Radek
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Diamoci del tu
Character: Self
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Cristo si è fermato a Eboli
Character: Carlo Levi
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Movie Credits
For a Few Dollars More
Character: El Indio
Two bounty hunters both pursue the brutal and sadistic bandit, El Indio, who has a large bounty on his head....
Journey Beneath the Desert
Character: Tarath
A helicopter crashes in the desert, and the crew winds up in the underground city of Atlantis and get mixed up in a slave revolt....
Le Cercle Rouge
Character: Vogel
When French criminal Corey gets released from prison, he resolves to never return. He is quickly pulled back into the underworld, however, after a chance encounter with escaped murderer Vogel. Along with former policeman and current alcoholic Jansen, they plot an intricate jewel heist. All the while, quirky Police Commissioner Mattei, who was the one to lose custody of Vogel, is determined to find him....
Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion
Character: Dottore
Rome, Italy. After committing a heinous crime, a senior police officer exposes evidence incriminating him because his moral commitment prevents him from circumventing the law and the social order it protects....
Rosi About Eboli
Character: Self
An exceptional documentary filmed in 1978 by Swedish directors Björn Blixt and Peter Englesson showing the behind-the-scenes of the film Christ Stopped at Eboli (1979) by Francesco Rosi....
Christ Stopped at Eboli
Character: Carlo Levi
In the fascist Italy of 1935, a painter trained as a doctor is exiled to a remote region near Eboli. Over time, he learns to appreciate the beauty and wisdom of the peasants, and to overcome his isolation....
Hercules and the Captive Women
Character: Re di Sparta
King Androcles of Thebes commands a ship in search of a threat to Greece, predicted by an atmospheric oracle. Hercules is part of the crew, but the strongman falls overboard in a thick fog. Washed ashore, he saves a young Ismene from Proteus, an evil, shape-shifting creature. Ismene takes Hercules to Atlantis, where he discovers that her mother, Queen Antinea, has captured Androcles. Hercules schemes to rescue him and thwart Antinea's dream of world conquest....
Open Doors
Character: Giudice Vito Di Francesco
Tommaso Scalia is a man who commits three murders: he kills his superior who sacked him, the man who replaced him and his wife. He wants a quick trial and an early execution, but an earnest, principled assistant judge looks for a way to save the murderer from being shot, because he does not belive in capital punishment....
A Bullet for the General
Character: Chuncho Munos / 'El Chuncho'
El Chuncho's bandits rob arms from a train, intending to sell the weapons to Elias' revolutionaries. They are helped by one of the passengers, Bill Tate, and allow him to join them, unware of his true intentions....
The Witch
Character: Fabrizio
A historian goes to a castle library to translate some ancient erotic literature. While there he discovers what he believes to be supernatural forces at work....
The Mattei Affair
Character: Enrico Mattei
Enrico Mattei helped change Italy’s future, first as freedom-fighter against the Nazis, then as an investor in methane gas through a public company, A.G.I.P., and ultimately as the head of ENI, a state body formed for the development of oil resources. On October 27, 1962, he died when his private airplane crashed during a flight to Milan. Officially, it is declared an accident, but many journalists explore other plausible reasons for Mattei's untimely death....
The Moro Affair
Character: Aldo Moro
On March 16, 1978, far-left terrorists of the Red Brigades kidnap Aldo Moro, leader of the Christian Democracy, the ruling party in Italy since the end of WWII. 55 days later, his body will be found in the trunk of a car. This is a neutral and factual account of what happened in between....
Face to Face
Character: Professor Brett Fletcher
History Professor Brad Fletcher heads west for his health, but falls in with Soloman Bennett's outlaw gang. Fascinated by their way of life, Fletcher finally takes over the gang, leading with a new 'efficient' ruthlessness....
The Abyss
Character: Zenone
The Inquisition is in full swing in 16th century Flanders. Wanted for his dissident writings, the alchemist doctor Zeno has been wandering Europe under an assumed name for twenty years. But he remains a non-conformist. He returns to his native Bruges, where he thinks he has been forgotten. In this silent labyrinth where the faces of the past resurface, he rediscovers his identity and thus signs his death warrant....
Operation Ogre
Character: Izarra
Spain, 1973. Dictator Francisco Franco has ruled the country since 1939 with an iron fist; but he is now a very old and sick man. The future of the weakened regime is in danger. Admiral Carrero Blanco is his natural successor. The Basque terrorist gang ETA decides that he must die to prevent the dictatorship from continuing....
Giordano Bruno
Character: Giordano Bruno
Fleeing from his enemies in the Catholic Church, the free thinking philosopher, poet and scientist Giordano Bruno has found some protection in Venice. But the Roman Inquisition, fearing his influence in Europe, wants to bring him on trial for 'heresy'....
The Four Days of Naples
Character: Stimolo
September 1943. After Italy surrenders to the Allies, people in Naples believe the war is finally over, but soon they realize Germans are still in control — and as ruthless as ever. Armed with makeshift weapons, civilians rise up en masse against the invaders — and overwhelming odds....
Sacco & Vanzetti
Character: Bartolomeo Vanzetti
Boston, 1920. Italian immigrants Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti are charged and unfairly tried for murder on the basis of their anarchist political beliefs....
Slap the Monster on Page One
Character: Bizanti
Days before the general election, after a girl from a rich family is murdered in an attempted rape, the editor-in-chief of a conservative tabloid tries to derail the police investigation in order to help the right-wing candidates supported by his bosses....
One Way or Another
Character: M.
Set during a retreat of Christian Democrat politicians who practice spiritual exercises together, it is an allegory of corrupted power. Disturbing, claustrophobic settings are the background to a series of mysterious crimes....
Lady of the Camelias
Character: Plessis
A young girl from the provinces, comes to Paris with one goal: to become a part of the rich bourgeoisie. To achieve this she will use her unique beauty and charm....
Girl with a Suitcase
Character: Piero Benotti
Lorenzo, who's 16 and born to a wealthy family in Parma, tries to make things right toward a showgirl, Aida, whom his older brother has mistreated. In extending kindness and standing up for her, he comes of age. But, is there anything he can do that will alter Aida's situation or her prospects?...
We Still Kill the Old Way
Character: Professore Paolo Laurana
A leftist professor wants the truth about two men killed during a hunting party; but the mafia, the Church and corrupt politicians don't want him to learn it....
The Working Class Goes to Heaven
Character: Lulù Massa
After losing a finger in a work accident, an Italian worker becomes increasingly involved in political and revolutionary groups....
The Violent Four
Character: Piero Cavallero
A detective is assigned to head a manhunt for four violent bank robbers....
I Am Afraid
Character: Brigadiere Ludovico Graziano
During a wave of political violence in Italy, a policeman who's already survived an assassination is assigned to act as a bodyguard to a morally upright judge. He feels increasingly fearful as the links of the upper echelons of police and government to the violence become clear....
A Boy from Calabria
Character: Felice
Set in 1960, the year of the Rome Olympics, a 13 year-old boy with aspirations to become an athlete befriends an ageing, disabled bus driver who understands his ambitions....
Many Wars Ago
Character: Lt. Ottolenghi
Time after time, soldiers of the Italian Army are forced to leave their mountain trenches in attempts to storm an enemy fortress, always with the same disastrous results. As casualties mount, indignation spreads among the rank and file. Disturbed by his superiors' decisions, Lieutenant Sassu is led to question the purpose of war and reconsider where his real duties lie....
Lucky Luciano
Character: Charles 'Lucky' Luciano
Lucky Luciano is one of the bosses of the Mafia. He orders the slaughter of 40 other responsibles, therefore becoming the only boss. But a few years later he is put into jail. In 1946, he got a pardon and is sent back to Sicilia. There, he begins becoming one of the chief of the Mafia. The US Army seems to refrain from interfering....
On the Tiger's Back
Character: Papaleo
Giacinto Rossi, a poor driver up to his neck in debt, is imprisoned for simulated crime. He finds himself in a cell with Tagliabue, an unscrupulous murderer; Sorcio, an elderly thief; and Papaleo, an honor-obsessed intellectual who murdered his fiancée's lover. Giacinto is forced by the three men to make a daring escape from prison....
A Simple Story
Character: Carmelo Franzò
After many years, a retired diplomat returns to his native Sicily to visit an abandoned property and delve into family correspondence. But is it worth bringing up the past? A difficult Sicilian history against the backdrop of the mafia and drugs....
The Suspect
Character: Emilio
Fascism has forced the leadership of the Italian Communist Party to settle in Paris. In Italy arrests of militants are decimating the organization, so Emilio is sent on a mission in the area of Turin, to put out of harm whistleblowers....
Wake Up and Die
Character: Inspector Moroni
A petty hoodlum pulls jewellery store heists in broad daylight. The cop on his tail knows he has accomplices and focuses on the gangster's girl friend is his attempt to catch him....
Seasons of Our Love
Character: Leonardo Varzi
Vittorio is a 40-year-old journalist who reaches a mid-life crisis. His wife nags him constantly for ignoring her and their child. After his mistress dumps him, Vittorio returns to the town where he spent his childhood to reflect on the state of his life. Flashbacks are used to tell of Vittorio’s relationship with his parents as a child and the effects World War II had on his development....
The Assassination
Character: Sadiel
Darien, a left-wing police informant, is forced to lure his old friend Sadiel to Paris, allegedly to film a television special about the Third World. Sadiel, the exiled leader of a North African state, is being hunted by the ruthless Colonel Kassar, who will stop at nothing to capture his political rival. Once Sadiel arrives in Paris, Darien realizes he has been manipulated. He tries to turn back the clock, not realizing what or who he’s truly dealing with....
The Death of Mario Ricci
Character: Bernard Fontana
A TV reporter and his assisstant go to a small Swiss village to do a programme with a reclusive scientist, an expert on world food shortages. During this time, an Italian immigrant worker is killed in a road crash and the reporter becomes involved in uncovering the truth about his death....
The Bandit
Character: Gramigna
Sicily, 1865. Two peasants, Gramigna and his father are tricked by Baron Nardò and robbed of their field, which then the baron lets to Assunta, her daughter Gemma and her fiancé Ramarro. Determined to take revenge, Gramigna begins to hunt down Nardò's complicit mediators. Unbeknownst to Gramigna, Gemma, to escape her arranged marriage, goes after him. Love and violence will follow all till their desperate ends....
Chronicle of a Death Foretold
Character: Dr. Cristo Bedoya
This suspenseful Italian crime drama is set in a Colombian river town and chronicles the series of events that led up to murder. Based on a novel by distinguished author Gabriel Garcia Marquez, the tale begins in the present as a middle-aged doctor returns to the village after a twenty-year absence to investigate the murder that occurred just before he left....
The Magnificent Cuckold
Character: Assessore
Andrea Artusi is a successful businessman with a beautiful wife, Maria, and a happy marriage - until he has an affair. After his own cheating, he starts to become obsessed with his wife's fidelity. Since she is one of the most desired women in town, he worries that it would be very easy for her to cheat on him. Now every time a man looks at his wife, Andrea goes crazy. Meanwhile, Maria finds out about her husband's affair and decides to plan her revenge....
The Seven Cervi Brothers
Character: Aldo Cervi
The story of the Cervi family. Rural farmers brought up to be idealogically opposed to fascism during the era of Mussolini's rule of Italy and World War 2....
The Terrorist
Character: Renato Braschi , l'ingeniere
In Venice in 1943, a group of partisans led by Renato Braschi organize a series of autonomous terrorist attacks against the fascists while the National Liberation Committee urges caution. Renato is determined to carry out his ideas, risking his own life, and not only that......
Banderas, the Tyrant
Character: Tirano Banderas
In Santa Fe de Tierra Firme, an imaginary Latin American country, the indigenous dictator Santos Banderas rules with an iron fist. A group of rebels trying to seize power by force while some liberals try a change of government legally....
A Man for Burning
Character: Salvatore
Political activist Salvatore returns to his native Sicily and stirs up trouble among the peasants, urging them to confront the Mafia and demand the right to plough their own fields. The peasants refuse to help him, and Salvatore is marked by the Mafia as a troublemaker....
Pestalozzi's Mountain
Character: Pestalozzi
In the 1770s, Swiss farmer Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi established a school for poor orphaned children in the Aargau. Up to total exhaustion he sacrificed himself for his pedagogical theories. Five years later, the project of the idealistic educator failed after bloody attacks of the French. In retrospect, the disappointed Pestalozzi experiences the last few months with "his" children....
Apollon: una fabbrica occupata
Character: Narrator (voice)
The film documents the trade union battle of the workers of the Apollon printing house in Rome, occupied for a few months after the management decided to fire all the personnel and sell the land on which the factory was standing. In the form of a docu-fiction, the events of the long occupation are reconstructed, which began on June 4, 1967 and ended in December 1968. The workers play themselves and various other roles, but they are also co-authors of the film, which is not a simple chronicle of ...
Summit
Character: Paolo
Paolo, a special guest of an Italian newspaper, leaves for Paris to attend an international conference, a summit meeting, the 'summit' of hope. He subordinates all his interests - work, the newspaper, friends - to the urgent task of winning back Annie, with whom he had previously had an affair....
Stark System
Character: Stark
Armenia Balducci's film, featuring Gian Maria Volontè as Stark, a cop-movie actor that falls prey to paranoia because he fears his latest movie will be a failure....
The Felling of the Forest
Character: Guglielmo
In the forested slopes surrounding the rural Tuscan village of Tirli, a group of lumberjacks work long hours felling trees in the hopes of making an ample profit. Amongst them, a recently widowed father struggles to overcome the pain of his wife’s death, whilst juggling the fresh financial pressures of raising two motherless children....
Phaedra
Character: Ippolito
Theatre play adaptation of Jean Racine's Phaedra filmed for TV....
Summer Night
Character: Alberto
Barcelona in the early sixties: black and white chronicle of the ups and downs in the relationship of several young couples of the Catalan bourgeoisie during the time between two Saint John's eve festivals....
Wind from the East
Character: The Soldier
A politically oriented film in which images suggestive of a mock western are accompanied by an attack on all cinematic conventions to date and a debate on the nature and possibility of revolutionary cinema....
Elio Petri: Notes About a Filmmaker
Character: Self (archive footage)
A documentary on the director’s career, featuring interviews with friends, collaborators, and filmmakers....
A Gangstergirl
Character: Jascha Freud
A successful young writer is in search of his true destiny. Is it the life with his wife and typewriter in Amsterdam or the offers to go to the dreamworld of the Italian film city Cinecittà which is luring him? Trying to find this out he goes into retreat in the house of a befriended gay couple in the south of France....
Letters from Marusia
Character: Gregorio
Chronicle of the repression that a foreign company exerts on the miners of a small nitrate town in Chile, whose workers decide to claim their most essential rights. A reflection of the historic union struggles in the northern Chile that ended with terrible repressive acts....
We Are Cinema
Character: Self (archive footage)
An Italian documentary about Italian cinema....
Tre colonne in cronaca
Character: Alberto Landolfi
Chronicle of the dark maneuvers put into practice by a politician to seize an opposition newspaper. A Lebanese terrorist receives the order to kill a stockbroker, which triggers a series of blackmail and deception. A deputy commissioner and a journalist intend to shed light on all these murky matters, but the politician has no scruples and also knows how to move with extraordinary skill....
Forgotten Activism
Character: Self (archive footage)
Volonté, the militant. How many people know this singular and important aspect of the great Milanese actor's life? "Forgotten Activism" attempts to reconstruct a particular profile of the actor Gian Maria Volonté, the one concerning his political commitment, an aspect that is often neglected and ignored. A life spent on acting, but at the same time on politics, with the fixed idea of always wanting to change things and have his say, denouncing the abuses of power - as in the case of the anarchis...
Under the Sign of Scorpio
Character: Renno
An island has been decimated by a volcanic eruption and the few survivors escape to a nearby island. Led by Rutolo, they know that their new home is equally susceptible to such a catastrophe via its own volcano, but they are unable to convince the current inhabitants of Island #2 to flee with them to a mainland....
Funes, a Great Love
Character: El tano Bérgami
A group of musicians, prostitutes, gamblers, and laborers, react to the arrival of a tango pianist at a saloon....
Under Ten Flags
Character: Samuel Braunstein
"Under Ten Flags" is a WWII movie loosely based on the true story of the German navy commerce raider Atlantis, a converted Auxilliary Cruiser, and her Captain Bernhard Rogge. Atlantis, camouflaged as a merchant ship, cruised the South Seas ( Atlantic, Indian & Pacific) and sank or captured 22 merchant ships from May 1940 through November 22, 1941 when she was sunk by the British Cruiser HMS Devonshire. Rogge was one of the few German officers of flag rank who were not arrested by the Alli...
Investigation of a Citizen Named Volonté
Character: Self (archive footage)
Indagine su un cittadino di nome Volonté is a documentary exploring the life and career of Italian actor Gian Maria Volonté. Known for his roles in films with significant political and social impact, this documentary offers an intimate look through interviews and archival footage, highlighting his commitment to cinema as a form of artistic expression and a tool for social change....
Un attore contro - Gian Maria Volonté
Character: Self (archive footage)
A portrait of the famous italian actor and political activist Gian Maria Volonté....
Caravaggio
Character: Caravaggio
A miniseries about Caravaggio's life....
A Fistful of Dollars
Character: Ramón Rojo
The Man With No Name enters the Mexican village of San Miguel in the midst of a power struggle among the three Rojo brothers and sheriff John Baxter. When a regiment of Mexican soldiers bearing gold intended to pay for new weapons is waylaid by the Rojo brothers, the stranger inserts himself into the middle of the long-simmering battle, selling false information to both sides for his own benefit....
For Love and Gold
Character: Teofilatto dei Leonzi
A group of rogues steal a scroll granting its bearer the property of the land of Aurocastro in Apulia, a province in the south of Italy. They elect a shaggy knight, Brancaleone from Norcia, as their leader, and decide to get possession of this supposedly wealthy land. Many adventures will occurr during the journey....
Zénon the Rebel
Character: Self (archive footage)
Zénon is the hero of “The Abyss”, the famous novel by Marguerite Yourcenar published in 1968. He is also the main character in André Delvaux’s film, played by Gian Maria Volonte, for the movie adaptation of the same book in 1988. But what does Zénon represent for us today, and what has become of him? How can this entirely fictional philosopher, doctor, alchemist and inventor from the Renaissance help us understand the era in which he lived as well as our own in these uncertain times? This is wha...
La strada più lunga
Character: Michele
Michele, a bourgeois intellectual, adhered to fascism for years. After fighting abroad, he returns home in 1943, but is now tired and refuses to join the Republic of Salò. His comrades still want him with them, but this Social Republic, imposed by the SS arms, does not convince him. The war continues and the situation does not allow one to remain neutral....
Spanish Western
Character: The Indian (archive footage)
A vindication of the role of the technicians and artists who made spaghetti western genre possible, and a walk through the landscapes that made it possible to recreate in Spain, mainly in the desert of Almería, hundreds of adventures set in the remote American Far West....
Reflections on a Political Cinema
Character: Self - Interviewee
This documentary addresses the challenges facing the Italian film industry in 1978 by focusing on the television productions of Francesco Rosi's CHRIST STOPPED AT EBOLI (1979) and Elio Petri's LE MANI SPORCHE (1978)...
Volonté: The Man of a Thousand Faces
Character: Self (archive footage)
A documentary exploring the life and legacy of renowned Italian actor Gian Maria Volonté, featuring insights from his colleagues, family, and never-before-seen footage, highlighting his artistic journey and political activism....
Saul
Character: David
Television play adaptation of Vittorio Alfieri's tragedy Saul (1782)....